https://www.expressandstar.com/entertainment/music/2017/12/13/robert-plant-and-the-sensational-space-shifters-symphony-hall-birmingham/
Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters, Symphony Hall, Birmingham - review
By John Corser | Music
"Remember the biggest island in Europe – Burnt Tree," were the bizarre final words on stage from Robert Plant as his sell-out UK tour came to a close in Birmingham last night.
Plagued by sound problems in the early stages the 69-year-old West Bromwich-born singer remained in good humour throughout last night's triumphant concert in Symphony Hall.
Taking to the stage with New World from his 11th solo album Carry Fire and Turn it Up from 2014's Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar, the band was forced to halt proceedings while the PA was sorted out.
Plant took the opportunity to fill in telling the audience: "It's seven years since I stood on this platform and I don't feel and different."
He regaled fans with memories of his childhood in the Black Country in Great Bridge and Park Lane East,Tipton, and how his grandfather played in a brass band there.
"My dad used to look for coppers in Tipton Park where now you can collect syringes," he joked.
He recalled Palethorpes and a quiz night in Tividale when a question was what is the largest island in Europe.
"The answer is Burnt Tree Island as a matter of fact," he claimed with a wink.
With the technical hitch resolved,The Sensational Space Shifters quickly shifted back into top form delivering May Queen from the new album with Plant prowling the stage with tambourine.
His voice was in fine form as he delivered the expected wails and moans in a set which took in a wide range of musical styles.
Folk support Seth Lakeman, who delivered a great one-man opening set, joined the band for many of the songs on fiddle.
Plant promised songs old and "some written on papyrus" and he delivered several Led Zeppelin songs including That's The Way and many covers including a glorious version of Richard Thompson's House of Cards.
He spoke fondly of his musical education in the 1960s at Birmingham's old Whiskey a Go Go club waching amazing American artists before delivering Leadbelly's Gallows Pole.
Justin Adams was in fantastic form on guitar on the Arabic-tinged Carry Fire with fellow guitarist Liam Tyson delivering subtle playing throughout the night, especially on the Zeppelin songs as the set finished with Little Maggie, Fixin' to Die and Misty Mountain Hop.
The night ended with a three-song encore of What Is and What Should Never Be, Bluebirds of the Mountains and finally, bringing the fans to their feet, a folk-tinged blast through the Zeppelin classic Whole Lotta Love.

R.E.M.’s Mike Mills Recalls John Paul Jones’s Role in Automatic for the People Russell Hall / 12.07.2017
Bassist-keyboardist Mike Mills recently had effusive praise for Led Zeppelin co-founder John Paul Jones’s work on R.E.M.’s classic album, Automatic for the People. Speaking with Billboard, Mills said Jones’s string arrangements for ‘Everybody Hurts’, ‘Drive’, ‘The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight,’ and ‘Nightswimming’ added “a whole other level of beauty” to the LP.
“It hadn’t occurred to us [to seek out Jones], and we didn’t think he would say yes, but as soon as [producer Scott Litt] mentioned Jones’s name and I thought about ‘Kashmir,’ it was like, ‘Well … why not?’” recalls Mills. “And then we sent him the stuff and he liked it and he came down and listened and did exactly what we wanted, which was to elevate the songs without dominating them.”
Mills and his former R.E.M. bandmates Michael Stipe and Peter Buck have been coordinating in recent weeks to promote the 25th anniversary Automatic for the People box set. When asked if there were any chance of a full-on reunion, Mills was emphatic in his response.
“In a word -- no,” he said, with a laugh. “Michael and I have a really great time doing the press trips. We go off and we go to really fun cities and have great dinners and work hard all day. But if anything it reinforces the idea that we did the right thing by breaking up when we did.”
http://www.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/News/en-us/R-E-M-Mike-Mills-Recalls-John-Paul-Jones.aspx

I was with JPJ... He came in to do the Mike Bullard TV show straight from the airport and flew back out immediately afterwards. The show had already started when we arrived. As you know, the TV studio at 888 Yonge Street was the former home of the Rock Pile.

Review: Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters,
Sheffield City Hall, United Kingdom
6th December 2017. Photo by Glenn Ashley.
by Andrew Foley
Robert Plant is a content and happy man. That’s obvious. And doing precisely what he wants, why shouldn’t he be?
“It’s nice to be back in this room,” he said. “I’m scared of this room,” maybe recalling an ill-fated gig in the mid 1970s when his voice gave way to illness.
To Plant, the only distinctions in music are between good and bad. His songs have Celtic roots, Arabic influences, North African rhythms, Indian textures and Delta emotion. Always the Delta.
He opened with New World from latest album Carry Fire. A new world colliding with old ones, in a galaxy where time and space are mere abstracts.
That’s The Way (from the third album) spirited out of Rainbow (from the penultimate one), with presentations merging flawlessly.
‘Similar but different’ would seem to be the company motto. An exercise in tribute nostalgia, this certainly ain’t.
Seth Lakeman joined the band for The May Queen, before adding violin to Gallows Pole. He transformed a traditional classic into an undiscovered jewel dredged from a Cajun swamp.
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You was a soaring stand out. Almost 50 years old for Plant, this could have been the song’s first airing. Lone voice and guitar for long passages, the delivery was spine tingling.
The Space Shifters are part of Plant’s furniture now, high quality musicians who give no quarter and expect none in return.
String masters Justin Adams and Skin Tyson are like fluid knights on a chessboard, defending their king at all costs and attacking when the time is right.
So the inevitable question for Plant remains. Will Led Zeppelin ever get back together?
The answer is a hammer-blow, god-like negative. On this showing, it’s a case of what is... and what what should never be.
https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/review-robert-plant-and-the-sensational-space-shifters-sheffield-city-hall-1-8898330